The fifth Dice & Mystics Fringe started later than intended, but it took of with a flourish. It had been  a long stretch from 2019 to 2022. Too long? We wondered, would people remember us, and would they come and play with us? Would we still miraculously get things for a raffle? You guys are amazing! When the bookings for this year’s Fringe opened, guess how long it took until first reservations rolled in? One second-questions answered.

The Dice & Mystics Fringe event had to follow the same rules as Spiel Essen, so everybody needed a mask, and also there were not quite as many people allowed in as in 2019. On the sunny side, that meant there was more space for everybody.

As soon as the announcement went public, publishers and designers – who, as always, were also cordially invited – immediately began to contact us and got us all excited about the truly wonderful things they would bring to our Fringe for you to win and enjoy. It soon became crystal clear that, even if the event was going to be a bit smaller, the hoard of raffle items would not. By no means.

Everybody was happy that the 5^th Dice & Mystics Fringe was about to take place. Preparations started, our equipment had to be updated with things like disinfectant dispensers, new signs hung up, but all in all it felt like the “downtime” in between had never happened.

Prizes were sent to us, or we were invited to pick them up at the Spiel on Thursday and Friday. After the Spiel Essen had started, the table was soon groaning under the weight of good things donated to our raffle …

… and that was just the beginning; many more contributions arrived later in the course of the event itself.

People started flocking in and in no time at all the tables were well-filled with all sorts of colorful and fun things and buzzingly busy. At 10 o’clock sharp, a voice boomed through the building: “Silence!” All fell quiet. The raffle was about to start.

Three boxes of the little great game Witchcraft by King Racoon Games went to three happy winners, who went home with one of the most popular and sought after items of the fair. Witchcraft was sold out to the very last copy and could easily have sold lots more.

If you are looking for an easy but highly entertaining game for younger kids, try and get this beautifully designed portion of Popcorn Dice by Van Rider Games. Who would have thought making popcorn can be thus challenging and exciting?

So Kleever by  Repos Games, intelligent at any time, soon exchanged hands, …

… and also  copies of the cool “Cactus” by Second Gate Games:

LudoCafe from Brazil again gave away their unusually themed card laying game Afluentes (Tributary rivers) designed by Luish Moraes Coello …

… and two two copies of his brand new Ferias em Dupla (Double Holidays).

Van Rider Games generously brought a whole treasure trove of graphic novel adventures for you to enjoy. Here are the lucky winners of: Captive, Dark Mage, Sherlock Holmes – Four Investigations, Hostage Negotiator, The Grand Tournament, Space Brigade, and also Sherlock Homes- The Shadow of Jack the Ripper.

This beautiful “Spiel Attendee 2022” foldable wooden dice tower and also two dice trays and two vouchers  for their Spiel booth or online shop are by InMyBox from Croatia. Maybe you remember Their ingenious and breathtakingly designed wooden storage box for Scythe. This year, among a number of useful board game accessories, they also showed off an equally impressive box for the game Concordia at their booth.

Not one, not two, but three awesome kickstarter pledges of the fabulous Flamecraft by Cardboard Alchemy with a number of exquisite enamel goodies, promos, a dragon miniature,  and a pair of adorably cute fluffy dragons went to very happy new owners.

More phantastic creatures were to follow: The Ruinmasters Bestiary, a bestiary brimming with descriptions of fantastic creatures and beasts, with breathtaking art, by Riotminds:

Not with stupor, but with cheers from the audience the Repos game Harry Potter – Stupor! passed into the hands of this aspiring young wizard:

Others had to stay safely on the grounds of solid Muggle reality with Fun Facts by Repos Games.

A mask hides the broad grin as this lucky individual gets ready to join the gruesome festivities of Carnival Zombie, 2^nd Edition by Albe Pavo.

With Fire & Stone – Siege of Vienna 1683 plus promo pack by Capstone Games, this combatant can get in touch with European history.

Another hush went through the room when a rarity found its new owner: Final Girl by Van Rider Games found its winner. It came together with the eagerly sought after and extremely rare Mystery Box, the promo card “Paula”, plus the vignette expansion Terror from Above.

These is nothing quite like the Illustrated Trudvang – Hidden Trails, the truly great art book of Trudvang, by Riotminds:

Riotminds  also gave you the role-playing game Trudvang Chronicles – The Seed of Vanirs and the adventure book The Elven Road with an extensive and immersive role playing experience in the world of Trudvang, the latter written by Alexander Urbanek.

Chip Theory Games regretted they could not attend, but they sent greetings:

A copy of the famous Too many Bones by Chip Theory Games plus two delightful expansions: Ghillie and Nugget!

The full moon, its expansion, minis and everything came down on this poor person who had been bold enough to attend the Fringe and not bring an extra trolley …

… because King Racoon Games had donated a copy of their Tsukuyumi Full Moon Down – Miniature Edition. Look at his face and see if he has any doubts he will only be too glad to carry this home-!

Another very special treat was going to Brazil . an incredible diorama of Warhammer Khagras Ravagers in tournament quality!

This amazing piece of art by the truly gifted painter Adrijano Kesgei  was donated by his Rhino and Navel Miniature Painting Studio and obviously took the winner’s breath away.

And last but not least, this Lucky Bob here gets a precious handshake from Jamie Jolly from Shadowborne Games – sealing the promise that in just a few days one of the – at that moment – last five existing standee pledges of Oathsworn is already his. We have news that the game has arrived in prime condition almost immediately after Spiel Essen, resulting in the winner skipping the weekly game night: “I have some unboxing to do…”

We had fun, we enjoyed coffee, tea and biscuits and each other’s company, the worldwide friendship,  recurrent and brand new attendees, we were missing those who had not been able to come, a good friend we lost, we saw all the hotness of Spiel Essen in action and played through on our tables, and we thoroughly celebrated the hobby of gaming.  And again, after such a long wait and a fun game night in Bochum, another Dice & Mystics Fringe event ended.

We are grateful for all those amazing and generous gifts of you, the publishers who donated the prizes, and send a heartfelt Thank You your way, and especially we thank King Racoon Games who also came with several crates of free drinks and snacks for everyone.

We give a Big Thank You to our engaged, tireless helpers and fellow gamers who made the event possible, especially our friend who came home alone from his family holiday to be there for us and for you while his family stayed on. Big Thanks to the Community of St. Engelbert of the Parish of St. Franziskus, who once again allowed us to use their entire building, and the kind ladies of the “Ecumenical Lunch”, who – as we found out only after our event – without further ado just postponed their gathering to the following week.

And we got presents from you, too, anything from manioc snacks and incredibly yummy pacoquita peanut bites from Brazil, delicious Tim Tams from Australia, extraordinary chocolates and specialty coffee, lavender tea (if you know you do know, if you wonder why, you do not need to know), beautiful shot glasses and liquor from Croatia, … to name just a few. Thank you so much!

Nice and friendly things have been said to us. Trying to be kind and sociable towards one another is quite enough, apparently, to give everybody a good feeling, at least for a wonderful while. We simply celebrated our hobby, just as you did when you came to us to play.

As it is 2023 now, we wish you all an excellent and very happy New Year! Hoping to see you all again. Stay safe, game on, and be kind towards each other!

Good Play, Better Day!

Your Dice & Mystics