Dice & Mystics

VALHAL – Joy and Sorrow in a Viking’s Life

Posted on 11. June 2019 by Arboretum

Have you ever come around the next morning after a rollicking party with a headache, scrambling for orientation and finding your befuddled brain completely and totally blank? If you ever experienced such an extreme yourself, you might be able to feel with the stricken heroes in this historical civilisation builder board game. Everybody else will just have to employ their imagination. The name of the game is a clue in itself: VALHAL is all about Vikings. Real ones. The theme of VALHAL is the life and day of the historic Vikings, and their religious beliefs play an important part. But Ragnarök can wait. For now, the most important thing is being a true Viking who, after a glorious death, will then proudly stride into Asgard, with his sword in hand, and claim his place amidst the mead drinking ranks of the heroes of Valhal. This is the sole and most noble purpose of every Viking’s very existence! It is just that a combination of too much mead, and a too deeply felt anticipation of the glorious afterlife, can lead to certain unforeseen complications…

On one fateful morning, the Vikings of Fjörnheim, a fictitious island in the North, wake up with a legendary headache. Still struggling with the aftereffect of mead still coursing through their veins and some major memory gaps concerning the finer details of the previous night, they are facing Rattatöskr, messenger of the gods, who brings it to their notice that in their drunken state they “accidentally” chopped up a holy tree to feed their little camp fire. The proprietors of the tree in question, the Gods of Asgard, are not amused. At all. Without further ado they withdraw the post-mortem access authorization to Asgard and Valhal from the hung-over Norsemen. Things cannot possibly get any worse for a Viking-!

The theme of the game:

This civilization builder board game takes place in the early Viking era, which is depicted with great historical accuracy down to the very details. You assume the responsibility of one of the Fjörnheim Jarls under whose leadership the Norsemen strive to manage, improve and further their settlements and, most importantly, perform great deeds – i.e. go a-viking and bring home loot. This is done in order to gain Glory and win back the favour of the Gods and eventually be welcomed at the doors of Asgard and admitted into Valhal after their heroic demise.

Some basic data:

Published by Tetrahedron-Games 2018 (Copyright 2017)
Designed by Martin Otzmann and Mario Arthur
Artwork by Nele Diel
Plays 2 – 4 players
Age 10+
Duration of Gameplay 90 – 120 minutes
Setup-Time about 12 minutes
Box Size square box (23,5 x 23,5 x 6,5 cm)

Lots of fun stuff in a box:

1 Season Marker, which is the central game board in the middle of which the seasons get indicated (there is even a surplus of 3 additional Season Markers in the box that can be used as replacements)
4 Favour of the Gods displays (1 per player)
4 Ravenhead Tokens in the player colours, used to record the progress on the Favour of the Gods display (1 per player)
7 Achievenment Tokens (grant bonus points for being first to achieve certain objectives)
8 Memory Aid Tokens (with the sides ”Spring & Disabled“ und “Summer & Winter“)
16 Food Tokens
16 Building Tokens: 8 Wood Tokens
8 Iron Tokens
80 Coins
5 game boards: 4 Viking Settlements (the Viking settlement of the player where
they can build, train their warriors and manage their ressources)
The Mainland (one central game boardwhere the villages and towns to be raided are laid out)
72 unit cards: 28 units Nordic Warriors
20 units Nordic Veterans (elite warriors) and
24 Longboats (the famous Viking dragon boats)
16 Buildings Cards: 4 Warehouses (improve building of ships)
4 Blacksmith’s (help warriors to become “veterans”)
4 Granaries (improve the food situation in winter)
4 Sacrificial Altars (grant ”Benevolence of the gods” cards)
24 Town Cards (from small undefended villages to strong fortified towns plus relief troops) .
24 Town Cards (from small undefended villages to strong fortified towns plus relief troops)
149 Playing Cards : 50 Event Cards
30 Benevolence of (the) Gods Cards
30 Wrath of the Gods Cards
15 Lesser Loot Cards
10 Large Loot Cards
10 Greater Loot Cards
4 Battletableaus
20 Markers (little wooden cubes in 3 different colours)
4 red D6 Dice
20 white Custom Dice (faces showing 1 to 3, with each number appearing twice)

Sounds like a huge amount of content? It certainly is. It really baffles the mind how is it possible to put out such a lot of gaming fun for such a reasonable price. It is not the sheer number of single game parts alone that is impressive: The artwork is really excellent and the production quality of the components is good. Everything is straightforward, easy to handle, and well-made. For such a modest price (or even higher prices) we have – on other occasions – seen flimsy products with just a fraction of components such as these. So it is truly amazing and also very gratifying to see how much of a game you are getting in a box of VALHAL by comparison.

The creators themselves, however, told us they are not entirely happy with the quality of the components, especially with some of the cards, although we and our fellow gamers had been satisfied with the present production and its components. So anyone who is planning to get themselves a copy of their own: You can look forward to the upcoming re-issue of the game (soon on kickstarter) with components made by different production companies where everything is going to be even better than it is now!

What impressed us the most about this game is the care and thoroughness that went into the way the theme has been translated into the design and the game mechanics. There is not a single aspect that has not been researched and implemented correctly in terms of cultural history: There are no anachronisms anywhere, n horned helmets or any other such popular nonsense in evidence! The creators did not simply paste a popular theme onto a game mechanism, the mechanism organically grows from the very depths and realities of the theme itself. They do take the Nordic culture of that particular era very seriously indeed. This even applies to such detail as the colour scheme of the game and its components which moves within the scope of exclusively such pigments that would actually have been available at the time of the Vikigs. Wow! That’s what we call dedication! If you are expecting extravagant fantasy Vikings sprung from a comic strip, you won’t find any of those here. But you are not giong to miss them either. VALHAL is a novel and crisp gaming experience with a sound mixture of rules, strategies and luck – just like real life. If, however, you are genuinely into the historic Viking people, you will in fact experience some of their real life while enjoying a game of VALHAL If you have none such expectations and simply want to play an interesting board game, VALHAL is for you, too.

The settlements:

There are four identical settlements. This settlement is the actual playing board for each player, where the destiny of the villagers decides; the victory points generated here are counted on the Favour of the Gods display. In the centre of each settlement there is the Jarl’s longhouse; this is where you place your resources. You collect your (unspent) coins, food tokens and building tokens (wood, iron). The number of food tokens in limited to four: Prior to the invention of canned food and freezers, you just could not store an unlimited food supply to last you all year. So in real Viking life, resources did actually run scarce at times…

In your settlement you have a shipbuilder; in that spot you are able to construct your dragon boats. You have a training ground where you may train farmers to become brave seafarers and man your ships, and a rune stone where you may sacrifice gold or glory (victory points) to be granted a favour of the gods. But be warned – gods are not bound to any profane rules. The favours they will grant are not always beneficial to mortals…

Also, each settlement has building sites for additional buildings – a warehouse, a granary and a blacksmith – as well as an (already existing) armoury for the use of which, however, you need a blacksmith, because it requires a blacksmith to adequately equip simple sailors with the necessary means to become seasoned veteran warriors. That makes a lot of sense.

Your objective is to finish your building as soon as possible. In order to do this, you must first place a coin on the building site and provide food for the settlement. (Workers need to eat.) Using resources can enable you to start or speed up the building process even without any food tokens. When finished, buildings allow you to build ships faster and with fewer resources, to train up and equip warriors or also to have more food during the long winter (better storage conditions).

How to play:

Each game consists of several rounds which take place during the three (!) seasons (summer, winter and spring). At the start of the first round, each player owns one longboat, one unit Nordic warriors manning it, one unit food, two units iron (represented by the two tokens) and three coins.

It starts with a “Vikingfahrt“:

You can only go on a Vikingfahrt (Viking sea raid) in summer. Therefore, the game starts in summer, and you begin by placing some (unfortified) villages on the mainland; their number is determined following the number of players present. And off you go!

The villages you aim for are easy prey – or not: There are small unprotected hamlets, but also big, heavily fortified cities that put up some fierce resistance with the help of relief troops in a second wave of defense. You are facing the dilemma that the easy targets guarantee some booty and a safe return of ship and men, but the booty you bring home may be rather unimpressive. Those rich fortified cities, on the other hand, contain a heap of real riches to be gleaned, and often some noble offspring into the bargain that can earn you a handsome ransom, but all this comes at great risk.

One thing is for certain: If you opt for a risk-free life bullying some conveniently harmless farmers into giving up the little they have, you and your settlement will yourself end up having little, no heroic ballads are sung in your praise and the gates of Valhal will forever stay shut. So when you are planning ahead where to risk a sea raid, you should think and re-think before you take action.

You pick out one of the places laid out on the mainland that you want to raid and pillage and chose the longboat and unit of warriors you want to employ for the task. The next step is the actual fight. A successfully pillaged village or city is removed from the mainland and you bag all the loot that is stated on its card: gold, resources like food, wood or iron, ransom for hostages…

That having been done, the next player starts the next raid on the respective target. This continues until all the places on the mainland have been raided.

How you fight:

If a ship has more than one unit of warriors on board, you have to first determine which of them is going to attack first. The attack bonuses do add up, but not the life points. All attack bonuses are used in battle, but only the unit in front takes the damage. If the attacking unit in front loses all life points and die, the remaining unit will be next to attack, but of course there are no more bonuses to add up. This gives you the impression you are dealing with real human beings who are acting together in small groups, though you do not experience them as different individuals. However, you do perceive them in a totally different way than you would if you played “unit“ as a mere abstract.

Cities have their life points, too, and they can either put up a weak or a very strong defence. An attempted raid cannot only fail, it can actually end in disaster! This is a somewhat sobering view of the raiding seafarers. What they do is depicted with all the dangers and uncertainties, the risk of paying for some lousy loot with the death of crew members, or even never returning home but sleeping with the fishes forever.

The good news: If your unit of warriors „die“, i.e. lose all their life points, they are not dead yet, but wounded to such an extent that their number of life points will be considerably lower in the next fight. The bad news: The wounded warriors are, of course, also weaker now. If the unit lose all their life points a second time, they are then considered dead and are removed from game. If the ship is no longer manned because your first and also second unit of warriors are truly dead, it is removed from the game. (It is lost to you.) This system also adds a lot to the realism of the gameplay.

The clear and well-structured combat system is easy to grasp and plays smoothly. How successful you are is determined by your attacking strength and choosing your targets wisely, but the dice add a random element of luck. The result of this combination convincingly simulates the actual hazards of a “Vikingfahrt”: However well you prepare, in reality you simply cannot achieve a total control on events and circumstances! To influence the probabilities in your own favour and prevent the worst from happening, all you can do is to plan ahead as well as you can and think your decisions through. The element of luck adds a lot of suspense to the gameplay, but it also helps you maintain the hope that next time fortune will smile at you again, even while you are failing.

And there is more good news: If at any point a Jarl finds himself without any ship or men, his settlement will immediately provide a new ship and unit of warriors! It rarely ever happens that your settlement has to throw you that lifeline, but it makes certain that all players can always continue to have fun together and game on. When all is said, this is what it’s all about, even in a most definitely non-cooperative game. We really like this simple solution because it excludes nobody and there is no interrution in the flow of the game.

This happens during winter and spring:

After your “Vikingfahrt“ you will – hopefully – have all the resources necessary to prepare for the coming summer and to further develop your settlement.

You place food tokens on the seasons on your settlement. Food tokens can be replaced by coins; you “buy” food you do not have. Next you need to hire more men, train up your already existing units to become veterans, and of course you have to build things. This is important because the buildings give you certain advantages once they are finished. It is essential to have a larger number of reliable ships, too, and also more warriors manning them, because all those villages that are easy prey will soon be gone (due to certain activities of certain seafarers from way up north). The cities you will be trying to raid next will not be overcome by a handful of men in a glorified rowing boat. In fact, this is a very busy and fast-paced phase in VALHAL .

The zeal you invest in your own village is not unlke the joyous ecxitement you would feel when packing your bags for a world trip. Your setttlement must survive the long winter; the journeys of the summer ust be well prepared for so that the men and boats will return safely and laden with treasures – what could be more important? Nothing, absolutely nothing of what happens here will be without consequence. In fact, this is a very busy and fast-paced phase in VALHAL

How to win – or lose:

You win by collecting the most victory points and thus being the first to reach the open gates of Asgard on the Favor of the Gods display.

The gaming experience viewed from the inside:

We tested VALHAL several times at our Dice & Mystics game nights: People who come to us expect to spend a nice, relaxing and entertaining time with good board games. Such guests only sit down at the table when the new game looks attractive and promises a great, varied gaming experience.

VALHAL immediately passes the visual test: As soon as the box is opened, there is a lot of interest. The artwork is appealing to all, and especially to some outspoken fans of the Viking culture, who admire the great care taken in the game design. They visibly enjoy the fact that the bold seafarers of the North, who so fascinate them, are not just props and decoration. During the following game rounds we constantly hear comments and observations about the life of the real Norsemen, their characteristics and their daily lives; the game arouses interest and furthers understanding.

There is no shortage of players. Setup takes a little time. Good things will take a while. Patiently and full of anticipation we endeavor to learn the rules for the impressive amout of components. What appeared a little complicated at first soon turns out to be quite easy to grasp. In the first round, the rules are still in the foreground, but everything works smoothly and effortlessly: We sit down, start playing, and have fun.

The first “Vikingfahrt“ is quite easily accomplished, although success is by no means guaranteed. In our very first trial round, all men and ships return successfully. The Jarls are happy. The first building projects commence in winter, in spring one of the settlements is proud to have their own blacksmith. When the second much more difficult “Vikingfahrt“ is in progress, the rules are crystal clear and the combat system does not need to be explained anymore.

The following summer it gets obvious that the first raid with the small easy-to-pillage villages had actually been some kind of tutorial. This is neat. It feels more natural to go through the steep learning curve within the actual gameplay rather than having to complete a separate practise session before. (In later game rounds, for a new gamer to be able to join in, a quic briefing about the bare essentials proves sufficient, everything else can be learned “on the fly”. Learning by Doing actually worked just fine!)

As the game proceeds, it turns out that it is not so easy to complete your buildings quickly enough and take advantage of them, if you had previously chosen to follow the less profitable but safer path. Two things become very evident. First, VALHAL rewards taking risks, not choosing the safest way. Second, the smallest mistake in your planning is going to mercilessly lead to serious consequences. That does make sense: The living conditions in the Viking age allowed no mistakes. So you have to be pretty alert and quick-witted. If you miscalculate your sea raids or fail to provide for he long winter or bring home too much of the wrong loot, you will have serious problems at hand – and there go your chances to become the most successful and most renowned settlement in all Fjörnheim. Winners as well as losers – all our gamers are enjoying themselves and want to play again as soon as possible.

At the following game nights and with the same paricpants, the gameplay is even more balanced. Everybody knows how it goes (or rather how Rattatöskr scuttles). Nonody is careless enough to naively attack the most harmless hamlet; all building activities, resource management and storage projects are planned more carefully and with better foresight; more ships and crews go a-viking, the game becomes more eventful, faster and more fluent, and whoever is going to win this time ramains open until he game is finished.

In the end, everybody applauds the winner, but although there is no envy among the players, you can read it in their faces – resolutions are being made to do everything differently and better the next time, all in order to win the favor of the gods. That’s the way it is meant to be!

Final thoughts:

If it was not for this little horned guy, we might have taken a little longer to catch our attention, but a glance round the corner and there he was, his little keen eyes blinking up at us from his place on the corner of the table – and we stood spellbound! We were captivated on the spot!

This little fellow is the messenger of the Gods (the Asen), who came scuttling down the trunk of the world ash Yggdrasil all the way down to our hung-over Vikings to deliver the dire message of the angry management. This unusually attractive figurine is not needed for the game itself, but renouncing him? No Viking way!

The messenger of the gods, a finely sculpted resin figure, and the attractive leather coasters with their beautiful ornaments are the extras that come with the special edition. But even without them the game VALHAL is a visual treat.

VALHAL is more than playable eye candy, it also has substance. It combines original, “organic” game mechanics with a historically correct and realistic representation of a popular theme. You can see very clearly what a huge amount of true passion and great care has been invested in the creation of this game. There is so much to do and experience, and although it is played taking turns, there is no downtime that deserves the name.

The Viking theme so convincingly portrayed by Nele Diehl is not an illustration, it becomes tangible and alive. That is what makes VALHAL so special. Even the steep learning curve at the beginning can be explained by the logical and convincing derivation of the rules from the topic itself.

The playing time given by the publisher is a realistic estimate, as demonstrated on several game nights. This makes VALHAL an interesting game not only for plays at home but also for a game club. Several games one after the other, even with partial change of players, are easily possible.

VALHAL appeals to different types of gamers, is entertaining, plays differently each time and offers excellent value for money for a good and unusual game with good production quality. Its moderate length makes it suitable for adults, but it is easy enough to learn to be accessible to older children.

To sum up:

VALHAL has convinced us: It’s great funthroughout! What more can you possibly want? We are glad that we discovered this game which now enriches our collection. „You should bring it to the table more often“, we’re being told, und there are questions concerning the upcoming kickstarter…

(The Dice & Mystics thank the publisher Tetrahedon Games for the free copy of their game.)

By: Martina Frohme; Dice & Mystics

Unexpected encounters of the board game kind… (Part 2)

Posted on 10. June 2019 by Arboretum

Apparently, this time and day board games are the hotness. They seem to be so big „a thing“, they can now easily be used to promote huge international brands and keep them rolling nicely. Sometimes quite literally.

I needed a new set of summer tyres for my car. While I made myself comfortable on a Ferrari red sofa with a nice cup of coffee for the wait, I casually glanced across to the “kid’s corner“. I had expected to see toy cars and wooden building bricks, picture books and the like. They were all there, of course, and even that inescapable dexterity “game“ where the child entertainee has to navigate some (theft-and-nonsense-proof) ring or other device along twisting wires and all kinds of challenges towards some goal within the construction. I find these contraptions ever so enticing and am very temped to give it a go, but when all is said I always end up not to because squatting down on one of those miniature chairs with my ears next to my knees would be too embarrassing…

But the dexterity game was clearly outshone this time buy a total of three boxes with different games all produced for promotional purposes. There was a “family game for up to 7 players“ titled “I love my Doblo“ designed after “Snakes and Ladders” meets “Game of Life“, having event spaces like “Mom is sick. Move back 5 spaces.“, “First soccer training. TraTransporting half the team. Advance 7 spaces.“ und “Puberty. 3 spackes backwards. Have an argument.“ (NOT joking here.)

The winner is whoever gets on the new Fiat Doblo in the centre of the board first. If you can also ”beat“ the other player’s pieces and send them back to “start“ like in other games was not explicit in the rules. I have an idea that if you would like that, a little “house ruling“ would be in order. Sadly, playing pieces and dice were missing. (Which proves the point regarding the self-defending precautions with any mobile components of the dexterity game.)

It is not just theme as such which is promoting the brand here, there are also promotional statements inserted in the details. You are informed there is a navigation system on board, or you stop on an event like “Summer vacation. Taking the surf board along. Plenty of room. Advance 1 space“, pointing out the advantages of the particular vehicle that is meant to be made desirable to you . To be fair, there are actually just 5 (or maybe 6 if you want to be a little more nit-picky) in a total of 19 event spaces that have any reference to a car and its uses, and not every one of them is positive Positives; there is one that tells you the car boot is too large and loading up therefore takes forever, so you have to skip a turn. (That is, of course, a fairly see-through tactics, but I would still say it is “pretty clever“ – if that was not also some form of promoting a saleable item.) The other events cover a wide range of landmarks in a young person’s life like taking your very first steps, chickenpox, good marks at school, the very first kiss and love sickness. You are, however, left with the impression that as soon as you reach adulthood – and according to the editors of the game – purchasing a nice large famlily cars should be high on your list of priorities. This adds a whole new dimension to the “family friendly“ attribute of a board game.

The card based game “Qubino“, a game “For young unconventional and lateral thinkers“. Basically following the rules of “Domino“ while playing, the future customers are training themselves to acknowledge all those reasons for buying the product that are being suggested to them from the sales catalogue, at the same time bonding to the company’s logo.

Some form of unconventional thinking may be happening to transfer the rules of “Domino“ onto “Qubino“, but there is no way the game teaches any independent lateral thinking to the young gamers. On the contrary, this happens the less the more the game actually achieves to be fun.

The two copies of a memory game were also next to complete. I simply had to get down to sorting the cards into their boxes! One of the games appeared complete by all standards, the other one was lacking two cards, but this would not have impaired the playability in a significant way if all you wanted was to pass some time while u wait. All it would take was to remove those cards that were lacking a double from the game. I am not going to lie to you: That design was ever so cool! So cool, I was seriously tempted to buy a copy if at all possible. (I even asked but was told the game was not available for purchse. Why was that, I wondered. Such a pity.)

The slightly abstracted images in black white and red colours all shared the same theme; in a wider sense they all depicted automobiles, racing and lots of things related (will not start contemplating the broken hearts and lipstick prints, though). There were only two motifs showing the photographic images of the company logo and actual car models. It definitely had something there…

Good play – better day!

Unexpected encounter of the board game kind… (Part 1)

Posted on 10. June 2019 by Arboretum

I am pretty much sure that most of you people who read this have their own game collection with boxes neatly tucked away in you black or white Kallax, and you buy your games online, from the retailer you trust, a large department store, at your friendly local game shop or at conventions and fairs like Spiel Essen. You play at your own gaming table – or any large table in your house that doubles as such – and at your game club and other such obvious places. But have you ever bought a game at the supermarket and eaten it up even before you brought it to the table?

Alright, the latter concept sounds a bit extreme, but it is not entirely impossible. There are, in fact, edible games! Between boiled sweets, popcorn and chocolate bars, you can actually take a bite out of Rummikub, Trivial Pursuit and Twister, as this find in the sweets department of a large German supermarket chain gives proof of. The best time to look for such specialities is before Christmas, but you can come across them all year round.

You find all kids of old classics here: A candy version of Twister, Uno made of chocolates, Ludo (Mensch ärgere dich nicht!) and the “original” Monopoly. The latter might have been introduced to make the infamous sentence “I hate Monopoly!” practically unutterable, at least among chocolate lovers. Most of them have chocolate components with wrappers camouflaging them as playing pieces of some sort and printed edible “paper”.

They are very playable, and if you have a good portion of self-restraint some are perhaps even re-playable, but it would be safest to avoid any AP, or the piece you want to place might melt in your hand. So much is certain: These games are not recommended for temperatures of 30° Centigrade or over, and they come with an expiry date.

The idea to have a sweet review of the most positive moments like in this edible game could be a nice addition to your New Year’s Eve celebration. It is clearly reminiscent of „Trivial Pursuit“. A pity that the box with its dial of trivia questions has outlived its purpose when empty. Maybe it can be refilled for some re-playability.

In a few cases the game is not a high calorie re-make of an existing game, but has itself and what you are doing with the content of the box as a “theme”.

In this example, gummy drops in different colours and flavours – nice and not so nice – come with a custom die. You roll and have to face the “challenge” according to your result, namely eat the next gummy drop the die has assigned to you. That is the game, all of it, and it comes with a warning to stop playing well before you get sick.

Gosh and golly, when do you “play” such a thing? And with whom? Was it inspired by Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans from Harry Potter? In that case I would wish for a nicer box. I also did not buy it, so I cannot vouchsafe if there was or was not any ear wax candy in it.

I can imagine torturing children who come a-trick-and-treating on Halloween with this! Joke aside, it could work as a little Halloween prank for the occasion, adding some extra “spice” to all the gruesome special effects our home has been known for when it functions as the most popular Halloween House for the children in the neighbourhood. That would make some sense. Problem was, this beauty of a game only appeared on the clearing sale shelf in January, but then it might have been around on time for the start of November, who can say? I think I will actually keep my eyes peeled for this in October.

Would I twister myself around sweets and buy the chocolate Munchopoly or any of the others? Certainly not. An edible game may pass as a novelty gift from a gamer to a non-gamer and be considered original and funny, but I am tempted to add “in a warped kind of way”. For somebody who does not normally enjoy board games, the special “theme” would not really add a lot to the enjoyment of the content. Maybe this would be different with an outright board game hater who would gleefully destroy the whole box (and no real live game hurt in the process…).

But what a cruel gift to give to any true board game lover, or worse, to any serious board game collector!

On the bright side, they are ideal for those of us who constantly face serious storage problems with every new game they acquire…

My suggestion: If you want to appease your sweet tooth with a game related treat, bake a cake with a board game theme! There are great examples of such cakes known to mankind, but however nice they are to behold, they do not camouflage as playable, durable games but are first and for all a cake to enjoy with a nice cuppa on the side – and then you can get out a real board game and play together with your friends!

Good play – better day!

The Dice & Mystics Fringe 2019

Posted on 27. April 2019 by Arboretum

Coming to Essen and want to play games?

October 26^th (from 4 p.m. until midnight)

It is actually the fourth time running that we are looking forward to play together will all you wonderful people from all over this planet at our “TinyCon”.

You would like to finish your day at the SPIEL Essen with a nice and comfortable game night? Then come to play with us on Saturday October 26^th at our game location in Bochum, 15 Minutes by car from the SPIEL. You are very welcome at our Dice & Mystics Fringe

As usual, it is free of any charge and entirely non-commercial. We simply like to give our fellow board gamers a place to enjoy their new games, meet people, exchange their experiences of the fair and have fun.

There is space and time to play on Saturday from 4.00 p.m. to midnight. However, the places are limited, so we do kindly ask you to make a reservation in advance. To make your booking faster and easier and save you from having to queue at the entrance, this year we are for the first time use an online booking service (see below); again free of any costs.

There are hotels and restaurants in the vicinity which may be about the same driving distance to the SPIEL as some in Essen.

There will again be the opportunity to order food and drinks on the premises; a delivery service will bring everything to the tables. And of course teas, coffees and biscuits are free, as always!

You would like to come? Make your reservation here.

You are going to receive an automatic confirmation as soon as you are booked, together with a detailed description on how to reach us (just 3 turns from the autobahn; also by public transport) and some important information.

Registration ends on: Saturday, 12.10.2019

No entry without e-ticket (on mobile device or print version).

For any important questions you may contact us on contact@diceandmystics.de.

To keep updated check on this website, on BoardGameGeek (announcement in the Essen Forum) or on Facebook.

The Dice & Mystics Fringe 2018 – Little Big TinyCon

Posted on 19. February 2019 by Arboretum

It’s been quite some time now, but the memories are so bright, colourful and vivid, they have not dimmed or faded in the slightest. How could they? You people are – amazing! Do you know how “long” it had taken until the first guest registered for our 3^rd Dice & Mystics Fringe after the announcement was put up on BoardGameGeek? Just 3 – in words: THREE! – seconds. We were booked full well before deadline. And the most awesomest thing of all, you all actually came along to play!

In its third year, our “Dice & Mystics Fringe “ had grown by a few places. But we are still the “TinyCon”, and will always be. Quite a number of hopefuls from our waiting list finally made it, some as late as on the day itself. So thanks to everybody who were so kind to tell us and gave others the chance. Our aim was to give all our guests a good time. Most had visited before. We do recognize many faces from past events; they are becoming like a large family to us.

We’re happy when we can welcome somebody we know or somebody new and we miss those we had been looking out for, like e.g. that wonderful nice couple who had been among our very first visitors ever and had told us they were certain to attend again in 2018, but did not. We do hope that only positive things have kept them away.

The coffee was just ready when – even before we officially opened – the first guests started arriving. Everyone was presented with a nice selection of special treats: The complete set of promo cards for Too Many Bones by Chip Theory Games, a complete set of promo cards for Folklore by Greenbriar Games – exclusive to Spiel Essen and the Dice & Mystics Fringe event – and a promo card for MireMarsh by Room 17 Games.

Gamers came, settled down, started gaming without further ado. Almost instantly the game rounds were in full swing. It did not take long until all spaces in the house were filled.

Most of our guests had brought games along right away, but some who were staying at hotels close by this year first scouted the situation before deciding what they wanted to put on the table, popping out and back again to bring their stuff.

A few little changes to last year were noticeable: People liked that we had been able to open up two more rooms with more tables and seating upstairs, thus creating more wiggle room around the same number of tables on the ground floor. As time flew by – as it does when you are having fun – it got “wiggly” all the same. Every single table in the house was well occupied with games and gamers, but since we put in more seats, although we were still limited to a set number of tables and guests, there was even a rare free chair that got used as a coffee tray, and people could move about more comfortably.

The buffet with the drinks and biscuits was located in the lobby, which made things so much more convenient (also for the lady who, unseen by most, magically made the coffee fill up and dirty dishes disappear). And you people made yourselves comfortable, as we could see by the coffees, teas and biscuits consumed this time: nearly twice as many! Having more freedom of movement and putting the buffet in the centre of the building obviously helped you to enjoy yourselves.

The generosity of so many people, institutions and companies was overwhelming. There is, of course the Parish of St. Engelbert, who once again let us use the building free of any charge, Kaffeestore24.de (who, once again, gave us all the coffee), Taxi Bednarz with their special taxi rates for the “Fringe”, and a number of unnamed Dice & Mystics who donated numerous this and thats.

At the time of the raffle at 10 p.m. the Fringe had been in full swing for some time, but the busy gaming community present was instantly silenced by what was later murmured to have been a spell made available by a certain wizard authority from abroad. (You need to have been there.) Next the many prizes attracted the attention of everybody.

Our sponsors who so generously donated for the raffle (in alphabetical order) found that their kindness was very, very much appreciated:

Chip Theory Games who attended for the first time, donated the last available copy of their brand new “TMB Undertow”.
Again there were many, many vouchers from Fantasywelt.de, the large German online game retailer, with a total value of € 50.
Our old and new friends from Greenbrier Games gave us a copy of “BarBEARians: Battlegrounds”, “Ninja Dice” and a copy of their brand new game “Helios Expanse”.
It was our special pleasure to once again welcome King Racoon Games with “Tsukuyumi Full Moon Down” which they had first presented at the 2017 Fringe (now getting issued in a copy with playable miniatures, brought to Kickstarter March 2019 by Grey Fox Games: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kingracoongames/tsukuyumi-full-moon-down-a-strategic-board-game/posts/2393332) who could now enjoy it with the many fans of the game, who in turn were happy to meet the makers again. This time they brought two signed copies of the luxury hard cover art book for their game to raffle off.

Mythic Games were graciously contributing a whole full pledge of their grandiose “Time of Legends: Joan of Arc” (which will be shipped to the lucky winner on release) including game mat, Dragon plus an incredible extra: a unique mounted canvas art print of the dragon attacking which had been made especially for the Dice & Mystics Fringe :

WHOA!!!

(Thank you for letting us use the picture.)

There was Restoration Games, with Justin Jacobsen spontaneously throwing in a copy of “Fireball Island” (to be shipped to the lucky winner on release) into the raffle because he had so much fun with everybody.

There were the good people from Room 17 Games who contributed not only their “Museum Rush” and also not one, but two full pledges of their great game “Miremarsh”, on kickstarter at that time and now well-funded and in its production phase, and as if this was not enough also two “freshly caught” Miremarsh goblins (minis professionally painted for the occasion by one of the Dice & Mystics: our great thanks to Andreas Mertin).

They were demoing a pre-production copy of the game and also their coming Kickstarter, “Tenfold Dungeon”, during the event. (This project is live on KS right now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/room17games/tenfold-dungeon-modular-dungeon-crawling-terrain).

Second Gate Games presented us with their big success “Monsterlands” for the raffle.
There were some fun little and larger games by Spieleparadies Wagner, the local toy and games shop. There were, of course – spinners! Wouldn’t be a Fringe without them now, would it…? We raffled off a box full of creative activities/projects with play dough which went to a bearded gentleman who is going to, we are sure, either build up a steep and spectacular art career on it or find a child who will be glad of the present.

And last but by no means least we once again welcomed

The Dice Tower, who were bringing along not only themselves – which was already an absolute treat for us – but also an attractive selection of their brand new acrylic dice towers featuring the unique “dice characters” of themselves and their popular contributors.

The strangest thing about this raffle was that so many people won such prizes as if they had been previously singled out for them. One example: One winner had on arrival told us we needn’t even put his ticket in the box for the raffle: “I’ve never won anything in my whole life.” And – got a game he had just put at the top of his current wish list. Well – never say never, right? Another very surprised winner went home with the one specific game he had wanted to get at the fair and had found to his chagrin that it had been sold out already. There must have been a lingering Dumbledore effect in the air…

The last game of a long eventful day was a high raging epic Ragnarök battle: Ever played Blood Rage with the Viking Cat Clan and meowing players? It got a teensy weensy bit weird at that late an hour, admittedly, but totally in style with some deeply engaged vikings heroes raging on towards Wallhall and glory.

And as if not enough goodness had been showered down on us that night, you had brought us presents: We happily nibbled and drank up the gifts you had brought us, still bewildered that you had somehow promoted us into the illustrious league of stroop waffle recipients:

There was even some lavender you could dab into hot water to calm down your nerves.
(You have to know in order to get that one…)

Did you ever taste handmade red banana candy?

Simply delicious! Thank you all so much again for all your kindness! It has been much appreciated.

October is long past and we are already in 2019 now, but fond memories linger. At a late hour, somebody told me we had “lit a beacon for world peace”. Whoa! I would like to express our deep-felt and most sincerest thanks for such a huge compliment. The truth, I guess, is more like this:

But in the dark even a little candle can make a difference. And again it was always you, our guests, who lit the candle, we just handed you the matches. So we hope you all had fun, felt welcome and took home some extra happy and bright memories from your visit.

Again, you wonderful people from everywhere on this planet filled the rooms of the community center that was so generously opened up for our event by the parish of St. Engelbert in Bochum! They let us have the entire house for our Fringe every year, out of hospitality and kindness, and because (I quote) “gamers are such wonderful people who look well after things, so our house is in good hands”. We tidy up, collect our posters and paraphernalia, dismantle those extra tables, empty bins; but what we do not need are cleaning cloths or brooms. Not the tiniest scrap of paper or shrink wrap on the floor. Our Fringe is the largest event taking place in the center by far – and the only one that leaves no traces except good memories.

We are not an organisation or even a “club”. We neither have nor accept any money (with the single exception of the donations which go directly and to 100 % to the parish for charity and the upkeep of the house, for which we thank you very much). Everything else is, quite literally, a gift.

The unconditional kindness people show to each other is what enables us to have our weekly game nights and also the “Dice & Mystics Fringe”. All raffle prizes are gifts. The coffee is a gift, teas, sugar, milk, biscuits, time and work power are gifts from a number of people who come to our game nights. They come to the Spiel and to our Fringe for the same reason as everybody else: They love and want to play board games. And yet – they volunteer to help, go shopping, translate, organise, wrestle with food orders, they repeatedly use their private cars as taxis for those good people from friendly publishers and reviewers who do not have a car at their disposal.

There is the kitchen lady who does not get to play or for the most time not even see a game the whole night. There is the guest from our “Frankfurt branch” who drove hundreds of kilometres to go to the Spiel and to play games and fills in for another “driver” who had called in sick: “How often do you need me? I’ll go.”

Good play – better day!

It is for you all that we are hosting this event, and we are richly rewarded for it by getting to meet people like you!

See you all in October 2019!

Double Feature

Posted on 17. February 2019 by Mellekai

Dear friends and gamers:

We give you time and space for all those epic board games that need more than a single game night can provide you with. You can bring those loved but long unplayed gems from your collection to our event to play on large tables and leave them set up over night. In addition we have prepared five tables hosting:

Descent 2nd edition
Dragonfire
Mega Civilization
Time Stories
Twilight Imperium 3rd edition

Hate (Newly added!)

If you are set on playing a specific game you can reserve a seat in advance with your ticket. Do not delay, the spaces are limited. If you reserve seats at different tables we may have to change your reservations.

The event starts Saturday the 4th of May at 04.00 PM.
At 07.00 PM we are collecting food orders for the delivery service.
At midnight we close the rooms. Your games can stay over the night but sadly we must send you all back to your own living places, dens and lairs.
On the 5th of May the second day of gaming starts at 09.00 AM.
At 11.00 AM we are collecting food orders for the delivery service.
At 02.00 PM we are closing the event softly.
During the whole event we will provide you with coffee, tea varieties and cookies for free.
You can order soft drinks from the delivery service with your food order.

You can book your free ticket here.

We are looking forward to play with you.
Good Play, Better Day!

A Sentinel’s View of The Tainted Grail

Posted on 23. December 2018 by Mellekai

Dear friends and fellow gamers:

With the KS campaign for Tainted Grail approaching its end may I ask you all to indulge me and hear me out on my observations made during that campaign.

The Tainted Grail came with the promise of a deep story, enriched by wonderful expressive art. The story is written by a prolific Polish writer of Fantasy novels. In addition to that, the publisher Awaken Realms has proven that it is possible to build a board game injected with deep storytelling with the game This War Of Mine. I regard that game as a piece of art. I have watched all the play through videos available on YouTube at this moment and I have read all articles I could find regarding the gameplay for The Tainted Grail. And time after time I have been more convinced that The Tainted Grail will stand up to the task to give its players a wonderful story that is worth their time. But mind you, the story is gruesome. It touches on the darkest sides of the old legends and calls forth the Foimore, the red plague, and the monster that lies within human nature itself. Given the expressive character of the art the illustrations follow closely and are gorgeous and gruesome. Nothing for the faint hearted I might tell you.

For a story to be good, really good like a warm broth in the morning, it has to be humble in the beginning and glorious in the end. The publisher of Tainted Grail have always expressed their will to counter power play. Like with the game Mice and Mystic your character comes with inbuild weakness. Ahhh, does that sound familiar to us like Flea from the Disney classic Merlin and Mim or like Taran from the not lesser fabulous The Black Cauldron. Yes, those are the heroes our hearts are bound to. And this games comes with such underdogs, a plethora of them. And mind you those weaknesses are not supposed to go away. No, they stay with the character and force you to build around them, making the game into a personal endeavor. You play the second choice of the gods, those who are leftovers deemed unworthy in the first instance.

And when you follow these weakened souls on their journey through the tainted land of Avalon, carefully watching their steps, managing their health, actions, food and magic you feel the loneliness of a dying land taken over by an old magic called the Wyrd. Like a fog, only countered by the light of large menhirs, encroaches it your game board, shaped of wonderful designed playing cards, laid down like the tiles of a wondrous roof you do not dare to touch given its delicate and withered character, and takes them away from you. The game entitles you only to see through a narrow hole in the fog of war that hides Avalon from you. And like the astonishing board game The 7th Continent you are craving to see more, to explore more. And your character cries up to you to find more food, a secure place to sleep and dream and for more experience to fuel its never ending desire for character evolvement. The game is a constant balance between your own desire to explore and and longing of your alter ego on the game board for safety and growing expertise. This dualism is the main attraction for me.

And the game shows this Janus doubled face to you in the fighting system, too.

You guess it. It starts with a monster card filled with fine art and markings on its side. The inexperienced guest in the realm of faerie is immediately taken hostage by the art on the card and is immersed. You know what, he is under the spell of the little folk now and we must wait for his excitement to ebb down. But the eyes of the seasoned board gamer are caught immediately by the small markings on the side of the card. And that is where the real beauty lies, the encounter system. It is build around those nodes. They tell you what and were you can find entry into the encounter with this entity thrown your way. They are emulating smell, noise and sensation, the rush of blood in your ears and the shiver of cold air that surrounds you. And you are going through your limited hand of cards to find the cards that provide you with the key to the riddle that this encounter truly is in nature. Truly amazing, engaging and new to my humble self.

While all those impressions still hold there are certain flaws that show up during the campaign. May I ask you for a little more time of your busy schedule to show you the parts where this beautiful corpse is starting to rot.

There are unsettling reports about the qualities of game components that reach me from the depths of Reddit.

The user nkMEGA writes:

‘The thing with AR is that their decisions were really … not up to par for the amount of funding they have gotten. For four million USD from Nemesis, they provided a production that is not as close as their 3D renders (in which btw they only show 3D render or resin – better material than plastic – to advertise), bad cardstock that worn down quickly for a game that requires you to shuffle and hold cards on hand all the time, and a rulebook with bad grammar even when the backer community had alerted them loudly about their major grammar problems weeks before production started.

They just shipped Nemesis now and only after many reports of bad minis, finally decided to hire their very first quality control person to improve production quality. Meaning 1st wave backers paid more just to be a test run with bad presentation.’

He continues:

‘I brought up that point when I saw my friend’s personal copy of Nemesis got worn out only after 1 game, because he was impatient to get sleeves for the cards. Another one had his copy of LoH and he also said the same. Most people I talked to dismissed my concern and said just buy sleeves. But at what point that it’s up to the consumer to be responsible to make the cards sturdy and pristine?’

Regarding the quality of the miniatures that are included in the prototype for reviewers my fellow backer and YouTube reviewer King of Average told me personally that no one should back this game because of the quality of the miniatures but because of the story and the art. I want to express my thanks to him and direct your gaze to his excellent YouTube Channel. If you like his work make sure to subscribe.

The Reddit user nkMega reports about the quality:

‘Nemesis just shipped and the game presentation was … sub-par. Heroes minis are small and details are not there. 1st wave backers will and can get a bad batch if they didn’t choose sun-drop option. Adult aliens show decent details and only the Queen is the redeeming mini of the set.’

On December the 22th Awaken Realms revealed via KS Live and Update # 20 that they will grant a download code for a video game of The Tainted Grail, OST, app with a voice-over of the story for free to all backers. This decision was triggered by the overall success of the KS for the board game, they continue. This free gift was cheered by many, especially those who are enjoying pc games equally or even more than board games and of course by all who are concerned about having to read the texts of the game out loud themselves.

This announcement raised some eyebrows with all who are more deeply involved into the creation of video games or are following the actual happenings in that segment of gaming. At his point in time we can observe the failing of triple A publishers in their attempt to create video games that are really good. It seems that those publishers are more concerned about injecting their triple A games with in game micro transactions and loot boxes. For more information about that I want to point you to the YouTube channels of YongYea and Jim Sterling. Many publishers are now more concerned with creating a constant inflow of cash from their gamers. You could argue that this is all well and good because they are bound to make money. But keep in mind that those gamers have already payed about USD 60 for those games only to find that those games are made grindiger and hard to play to sell those micro transactions to ease the gameplay. That is fine with a free to play game.

And here we find the free to play video game from Awaken Realms. They are eager to join those companies and get their share of the video game market which is currently changing its main focus from producing good games into providing live services.

May I quote a very talented gentleman and knight of the Empire that goes by the name of Terry Pratchett:

‘Taxation, gentleman, is very much like dairy farming. The task is to extract the maximum amount of milk with the minimum amount of moo.’

And despite all expertise and long years of producing video games we find that many of those highly experienced video game publishers are going under. Telltale Games, maker of The Walking Dead with 275 employees closed 10 studios. EA despite holding worldwide licenses for many beloved IP like Marvel, Star Wars and Bat Man has closed dozens of studios including previously acquired ones like Westwood and Black Box Games. Visceral, creator of Dead Space and Battlefield Hardline with at least 80 employees closed the gates. And mind you the shit storm that is caused by Blizzard with their decision to go for the free to play mobile phone market instead of concentrating on a long awaited new game for pc. Right now Blizzard is reducing the number of their employees worldwide to counter the meager revenues of this year.

And into this turbulent market Awaken Realms want to venture. They have earned a solid reputation with board gamers. But they have no such leverage in the video segment of gaming. Hence it seems possible that they will fail with this endeavor. In addition to that they do not rely on the service of any experienced third party like CMON does with Blood Rage Digital. Awaken Realms stated that they will develop their video game in house. This rose the questions how both projects are interlinked? They told us that both projects are relying on separate funds and that different teams are working on the projects. In the very same update they also announced that both teams will be connected and share Human Resources contradicting their former statement. And while update number 20 went online they were including a new pledge level for the video game only contradicting their former statement about strict separated fundings for both projects. May I add that the strict separated funding of projects could only be assured with the construct of two separate companies handling both tasks independly, but joining their efforts through a joint venture to grant a cooperate identity and seamless game design.

Many backer were toughed by the excitement of the co-producer and owner of Awaken Realms Marcin Swiercot. He was quite passionate about the video game project and happy to give it to the backers for free.

But may I add that despite I am touched by his excitement I am still not convinced by the gift. The gift comes tied in with the high risks of venturing into the video game market. To buffer that risk he invites his backers to follow him into that market with this free copy of the video game, creating an instant power base.

And the excitement he shows comes to me as an ill wind because we already know that Awaken Realms tended to wrong business decisions in the past leaving them poorly equipment to survive in a market full of hard fighting giants like EA and Activision. Those are steered by financial experts and not by idealists. And I am nervous about the fact that inexperienced idealists are putting the fundings of this KS campaign, that has started for a board game only, at such a high risk. They tend to support their dreams by all means and with all resources they have reign over, meaning our pledged money for the board game

The reddit user nkMEGA reminded us:

‘They just shipped Nemesis now and only after many reports of bad minis, finally decided to hire their very first quality control person to improve production quality.

Meaning 1st wave backers paid more just to be a test run with bad presentation.

Not to mention the fiasco with retail version of This War of Mine expansions. They did not handle well that gave the retail publisher the right to completely make expansions bought during KS campaign obsolete. Anyone who wants to play retail version of the expansions will have to give up their KS version. If you’re not a collector, then you’re not really affected by it, but let’s say you got the free KS expansion and now want to buy other add-ons during retail, then you have to give up playing your KS ones.’

If you ask me how I assess those impressions and proceed with my pledge I answer to you that I will keep my pledge because I see the wonderful game I have fallen in love with still, despite the changes in the general framework made by Awaken Realms.

I do not expect them to fall prey to their own desire to venture into the video game market segment. But I think the production will be delayed further than even I have predicted right from the start. Hence I will go for a two wave delivery to receive the core box as soon as possible while moaning the far away expansions . And I will grudingly go for the sleeves, too, despite I do not sleeve my games on a regular basis. And I will choose sun drop for the miniatures to make sure that I get double-checked quality.

May I thank you for the time you spared reading my words.

Keep in mind that those are the view points of only me and me alone.

Miremarsh Nights 2018

Posted on 4. November 2018 by Mellekai

There is something spooky out tonight. Well, most of the time it is just some creepy-crawly looking for some toes to bite. But this night, this night it was different. Because it was the Miremarsh Night!

All the goblins in their settlement in the midsts of the Miremarsh knew, they felt it in their bones and teeth. A chill that the burning bone fire could not ease, a whisper in the shadows like the ancestors calling your name. All the birds hid, silent during daylight before this particular night, and all the snares were empty as nothing has moved around in the marsh.
Under the disconcerned gazes of the elders all pointy sticks were sharpened with many goblin fingers harmed in the process.
And now all the goblins were waiting for the return of their scout. The only one brave enough to venture out into the darkened swamp under the low hanging sky. Well, they more or less just pushed one unlucky goblin out of the gates and pointed him – with quite some harsh words and threats to spit roast him – into the deep marsh.
Nevertheless they were waiting, all bulwarks manned and the gate closed, just the little porch remained open, ready to grant entry to the returning scout.
And then there came a screeching noise as if all the humans sacrificed by their tribes, bound at wrists and ankles, drowned by their priesest of old, were trying to scratch with their fingernails through the gates of the Undermire to find a less dark and dampen place to rest till the end of times. The noise punched into the goblin ears with thorny fingers, pulled at their bare teeth and blew icy cold in their staring eyes.
But the goblins did not leave the bulwark, they did not give up their posts at the gate and with a grin and a last pull at their hair the screeching sound danced off deeper into the marsh.
Out of the empty silence that followed the screech the small figure of a goblin grew into sight. The goblins at the gates and the porch screamed and cheered the returning scout to be faster, to reach the settlement before the source of this awe bearing sound could reach the gates. And they noticed that the scout held something above his head, something round, glazed deep blue. With eyes wide open and gasping breath the goblin reached the porch and all the goblins gathered around him eager to hear what he has found, what he has brought.
Shivering he holds up a blue potty! And with trembling finders he pulls out a rolled parchment. On it is written: Come to me in the Miremarsh. Signed Mellekai.

We gather for the Miremarsh Night at Gemeindeheim St. Engelbert, Kassenberger Strasse 94, Bochum on Saturday the 17th of November from 05.00 PM to 11.00 PM. There you will have the opportunity to play a shiny pre-production copy of the game Miremarsh and test Museum Rush, too, before the pledge-manager for Miremarsh by Room 17 Games closes on December the 07th. And for all guests there will be a promo card, too. We can host 15 brave goblins (we are planning three rounds, first come, first served). You will only gain entrance to the Marsh if you reserve your seat here.

Always ready to serve you! We have coffee, tea and biscuits for free and there will be the opportunity to order food and drinks.

Mellekai

And there ist even more to experience if you follow the honorable goblin Kehlenschnitt. He is organising another great Miremarsh Night. I am happy to present you his message:

Imagine you are a Goblin in a deadly swamp, filled with terrifying monsters, vicious traps and a lot of unlucky, unruly and reckless fellow Goblins, each vying to be the next Goblin King. Do you have what it takes to become a Goblin King ? Can you beat the odds and are you clever (or reckless) enough to survive the many deadly challenges that can be found in the Miremarsh ? Now is your chance to heed the call and accept the challenge to become the new Goblin King of Miremarsh. I will host demogames of Miremarsh (with a shiny, new prototype copy) at my local gaming store on Saturday, 24th November from 3pm-7pm. Don’t miss this opportunity to get a first glimpse at this wonderful game and the highly detailed Goblin miniatures.

Event location:

Brave New World

Herzogstr. 25-27

50667 Köln

Brussels Games Festival 2018

Posted on 6. October 2018 by Arboretum

Summer, sunshine, scouting for board games!

Our Belgian Dice & Mystics member had invited us to come along to the Brussels Games Festival 2018. We had never been to the Brussels Games Festival before, nor – to tell you the truth – had we ever even heard of it. We had no inkling of an idea what we had been missing out on! On arrival early in the morning, our anticipation reached a climax when we saw how large an event we were looking forward to. No entrance fees. Does that mean…? Yay! You can keep all your money for the games. And: Location is not everything – but a setting like that certainly takes some beating!

Located in the “Parc du Cinquantenaire” (Park of the Fiftieth Anniversary) on 40,000 square metres there were rows and rows of mostly white tents, booths of so many publishers with games of all colours and for all tastes, speciality shops, clubs and associations… The park is the site of a former military parade ground. In the course of the 50^th anniversary of Belgium’s independence in 1880 it was used to stage a World Exhibition. So, the annual games fair takes place in a very prominent and also beautiful part of Brussels.

During the last weekend of August, the Brussels Game Festival had a bit – or rather a lot – of everything: three days of board games, party games, miniature games, educational games, wooden games for inside and outside, role play and LARP, international games, casual and hard core games, children’s games, game prototypes, tournaments and a game night, and also the people who design, make, and sell the games for our wonderful hobby.

Right at the foot of the imposing Triumphal Arch at the entrance to the grounds- 50 metres high and illustrating the history of the city – there was a huge sales area for second hand games with a sizeable queue forming. (The sky abuve was dramatic.Early in the morning the air was still a bit nippy, but soon it was turning into a lovely day altogether, with just a few clouds every now and then.)

If you expect to find some musty worn around the edges thrift store quality when you hear the term ”second hand“, you will have to re-think your ideas.

For any French speaking gamer the second hand area must be like a big toy shop at Christmas to a little child because, not surprisingly, about 80 % of the offers are in French. (Don’t sue us if we don’t get the percentage right but that is how it felt.)

Quite a large number of games were language independent or copies in many other languages and it would have been easy to come out the other end of the second hand area with a pile of excellent games in excellent next to new condition, and in German, too. There were choice titles from recent years, from all the old and new classics to the multitude of Star Wars and other IP games and a whole kaleidoscope of enticing games we had never seen or heard about before. We very nearly bought “Yggdrasil”, even though it had a French rule book, but it looked all new and shiny and the price was hugely tempting; I personally felt my resolution to just look around and not buy anything at our firs visit slowly but constantly dwindling…

Just behind this wonderland of budget board games there was another most attractive feature of the Brussels Games Fair: the Protozone. No – not “protozoon” like one of the early organisms that preceded the later more developed species; the prototypes of still unpublished games proudly presented by their designers and artists were all of them well advanced, looked good on the table and, judging by the fun everybody appeared to be having, will eventually find a publisher and an eager international audience that will buy these many creative products.

Everything is fresh, and the sheer variety of game ideas and mechanisms just swoops you off your feet and makes you sit down and play, play, play…The empty space is deceptive; the tent was huge, and there were dozens of rows where games could be sampled. On entering you could collect a list of the games present, and when you played a round of a game, you received a stamp on the space of the game you participated in. On leaving, you could circle up to three games that you liked best and put your vote in a box as a feedback.

I got a chance to play Canyon Cup, a fun and exciting racing game with a tongue- in- cheek twist, by the brothers Pirson, again. It was a surprise visit. I remembered an early version of Canyon Cup from when it had just been finished and was presented and tried out on “real, live gamers” for the very first time at the Dice & Mystics Fringe 2016.

The refined and polished game with its modular board proved to be really popular with the visitors who were already queueing up behind me and our Belgian friend while we were racing our cars along the parcours through the desert canyon, outmanoeuvring and shooting at each other, exploding barrels and collecting popularity with our fictitious audience of the ranks. There are any numbers of racing games about, but apart from all the good things that can be said about Canyon Cup there are the original winning conditions and different ways of fulfilling them by which Canyon Cup elegantly avoids a problem that is frequent in other games: You do not have any runaway victors, the race remains fairly open and unpredictable to its very end. There are people I know who cannot wait to lay their hands on Canyon Cup when it finally comes out, me being one of them. (If it comes to choosing the driver – I play crazy eyes Walter! So hands off him!)

Have you ever navigated a Zeppelin in an air fight? Ever been engaged in a deadly ball game? Here are “Zeppelin Crasher” (left) and “Mortal Basket” (right).

The Protozone was easily the most fun part of any games fair we had ever been to. It was like an excellent “game night” with friends old and new. The languages used at the table were French and just as frequently English as a lingua franca to communicate with numerous visitors from abroad. The time spent at the Protozone was surely one of the best gaming experiences you can have, take our word for it.

There were Games of The World.

There was an outdoor game going on that reminded me of Kubb. People in the park were playing Cricket. And there were strange things…

Talking about meeting friends and acquaintances – we had last seen video reviewer Barry Doublet at Spiel Essen. It was his first time at the Brussels Games Festival, too, he admitted, and he was just doing his first round along all the booths. He was a good sport with getting Eric-Lang’ed (ever had your picture taken together with Mr. Lang? Then you will know) and told us he would also be at the Spiel Essen fair in in Germany, October 2018. We will make sure to drop by at the Bombyx booth where he will be demoing Imaginarium, Abyss and Catch The Moon and say hello.

There were so many activities and animations going on, we simply could not take our time to really appreciate them at our first visit. We decided to leave that for the next time and concentrated on board games and their makers only. In the vast expanses of the park, we counted 74 publishers. One look at the poster shows you how long a list it is and how spacious an event, too.

Outside in the different parts of the park you could find all kinds of publishers great and small.

We were expecting to see Mythic with their upcoming “Solomon Cane”, and there they were.

We expected to see ”Perdition’s Mouth” by Dragon Dawn Productions from Finland again, and there they were.

Matagot – yep! Just to think how hard it often is for us to get one of their fascinating games in Germany.

Iello? Why, sure!

Some Quidditch? Apparently yes. (Although we did not see anyone flying around on a broomstick.)

And someone somewhere would surely be playing “Azul”, and – yes, found them at it!

“A” as in “A-smodee”? Have a guess. Nearly an entire row, tent after tent, red and white and mostly larger than those of other publishers, sported the Asmodee flag.

After several rounds and discovering something new at every twist and turn, we needed some rest. Time for a break. The drink of the day – unless you preferred soft drinks altogether which is fine – was “Cave Troll”.

You have a choice of a variety of food trucks: Belgian fries, roast and fried cheeses, sweets… Have a pick.

When we had just grabbed our lunches a sudden but brief shower (and the only one the entire day) drove us to seek shelter under one of those large chestnut trees and we ate, well protected from the rain, until with the last bite the sun came out again. Excellent timing!

The afternoon was a time of new discoveries. We totally fell in love with “Bourpif”, which we understood (or misunderstood) means as much as “getting one on the nose” (in all friendship, of course) or maybe “Nasenstüber” in German, and …

… were also enamoured on first sight with some very special trolls that looked fun and came with a set of luxury limited art prints (in the game the lovely young lady does wear a brassiere!). Of course, “Trôl” had to come along!

There went the last shred of our original resolution not to – oh, bother!

So much for “not buying any games”… The best was yet to come. We ran into graphic artist Naiade/Xavier Gueniffey Durin who was on his way to the Lui-même booth where he and the game designer of “Snow Time” were to meet for signing copies, because this was the very first day the game was sold to the public. He was surprised because normally people recognize his name, but not necessarily his face, especially not people from abroad. It so happened that we were the first to buy and got a brand new copy, stamped and marked as as # 1 and signed by Frank Meyer and “doodled” by Naiade, if “doodle” is appropriate a term for an original full drawing by the artist while we waited.

On the whole we were impressed by the colours and beautiful designs of all the French language games and often enquired whether there were also rules in English or German available. Sometimes there were, sometimes there were not, and sometimes there was no imminent answer to the question and both the people at the booth and we needed to check together on the internet. A whole new gaming universe was spreading out before us, if only we knew the magic words to unlock its secrets…!

What was best about the Festival? The games you could buy, old and new, of course. Playing games and having such fun, of course. Spending time with our friend. The people we met. The location. The fact that, unlike at other – meaning indoor – fairs, you also enjoy the sun and fresh air and lots of space and nice views and all the things you see around the Brussels Games Festival. The fact that you get to see games and prototypes you do not that likely to see anywhere else. The fact that it is for free. What was best? Why, everything was!

And then there is Brussels itself, with its sights, parks, beautiful architecture, and that lovely Pâtisserie just round the corner. So then was it worth it, visiting the Brussels Games Festival 2018? Well, we have been thinking back on it every day and enthusiastically telling everybody who did not make it up a tree fast enough about it, and we are firmly set on going again and again and again!

So: YES. We strongly recommend the Brussels Games Festival. Definitely.

If you can, do go!

Dice & Mystics Fringe 2018

Posted on 26. April 2018 by Mellekai

Update 2 (20.08.2018):

Dice & Mystics Fringe on October 27^th – Need a Taxi?

We have spoken with Bednarz Elektro Taxi GmbH (www.bednarz-elektrotaxi.de), a very reliable local service, and we are glad that we were able to secure a

special offer for taxi rides to or from the Dice & Mystics Fringe: 10 % off all fares outside Bochum!

(Please note that all fares within the city limits of Bochum have to be charged the regular taxi rates; all fares beyond the city limits are 10 % off for you.)

In order to use this special offer, contact one of the numbers below or send a mail and state that you are a guest at the “Dice & Mystics Fringe” event.

Tel.: 0234-490024 OR Tel.: 0234-490026

Fax.: 0234-490025

mwahl@bednarz-elektrotaxi.de

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Update 1:

We are happy and proud to announce:

The Dice & Mystics Fringe event on Sat. 27th Oct. 2018 is booked full!

We are very much looking forward to seeing you wonderful people in October. With over 80 % returners from previous years it is going to be a happy reunion for many.

Like last year, anybody who is late but is still wanting to join in the fun is from now on going to be put on our waiting list.

PLEASE:

If you are booked but can for whatever reason not attend, do give us a shout so that somebody else can have a chance to take your place. Thank you so much!

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Going to Essen and want to play?
Join us at the Dice & Mystics Fringe 2018
October 27th (from 4 p.m. until midnight)

Yes, we’re doing it AGAIN! How could we not, after all the positive vibes, the fun and happiness we experienced at our previous Fringes?
You are looking for a nice and comfortable game night to round up your visit at SPIEL Essen? Then come to play with us on Saturday October 27th at our game location in Bochum, 15 Minutes by car from the SPIEL. You are very welcome at the Dice & Mystics Fringe, aka “Tiny Con.”
It is free of any charge and entirely non-commercial. We just want to give our fellow board gamers a place to enjoy their new games, meet people, exchange their experiences of the fair and have fun. There is space and time to play on Saturday
from 4.00 p.m. to midnight.

However, the places are limited, so we do kindly ask you to contact us so that we can put you on our guest list. We can give you directions on how to find us (by car just 3 turns from the autobahn; also by public transport). Hotels and restaurants in the vicinity may be about the same driving distance to the SPIEL as some in Essen.

There will be the opportunity to order food and drinks on the premises; a delivery service will take orders at the tables. Teas, coffees and biscuits are free!

You would like to come? Contact us by clicking here. We need your full name and home address and also the full names of any friends you want to bring along. You are going to receive a confirmation as soon as you are booked.
Registration ends on Saturday, 13.10.2018.