What an event! The 6th Dice & Mystics Fringe was able to run at full capacity again. And you were there. Regulars since the first Fringe in 2016 as well as new faces started to arrive, all smiles and anticipation. Everything was ready and waiting.

Thursday and Friday we had been busy picking up donations for the raffle; 3 games had already been set aside for us on Wednesday but had miraculously grown into a little tower of 10 games altogether when we got there. 

This is about half of the treasure trove only. The other half was going to emerge on the arrival of our guests from the board game industry. The publishers and businesses seemed set on really outdoing themselves this year, and everybody at the Fringe can testify that they achieved their goal.

Game bags were unpacked, and soon the subtle sigh of tearing shrink wrap and the musical trickle of punched tokens onto tabletops could be heard. The first game rounds had settled in, fresh coffee and biscuits at the elbow, ready to get going. And thanks to you all it was going to be legendary!

There were so many hot new games on the tables, and some beloved classics, too. 

Once the people from the industry had come, there was even an exciting prototype to admire and try out. Everybody was relaxed and in high spirits, played, enjoyed their drinks, nibbles and food that was delivered to the table, and–just like last year–King Racoon Games had converted  their  trolley they normally transport game boxes on into a cart for a number of crates with a large range of refreshments as a gift to you all.

At 10 p.m. sharp, at the well-known boom of “SILENCE!“ people from the upstairs rooms came rushing to the ground floor. The raffle was imminent, the tension was rising. The hushed silence broke into aahs and oohs when the prizes were rolled in.

The trail into the land of games and fun started off with–bags! (You will hear more of that later.) 

Starting in a fairly safe environment at home with Garden Guests (2023), brought to you by Van Ryder Games, the journey quickly moved on to a more dangerous quest, namely Robot Quest Arena (2023) by Wise Wizard Games. 

Further on the trail we encountered a plushy little yellow Bread Dragon called Loaf and its fellows, the red Meat Dragon Hot Dog, who immediately befriended his new owner, and purple Thistle, the Potion Dragon. They all were sent out to delight you by Cardboard Alchemy, straight out of their popular family game Flamecraft (2022), also donated to you as yet another magnificent prize, including all the goodness of an original KS pledge, highly sought nowadays!

To get to their new friends, the cute little plushies had to master a veritable “ninja mission by crossing a labyrinth of balancing floorboards”: the new title Floating Floors (2023), kindly donated by Stella Jahja from Meeple University.

The journey went deeper into the realms of mystery and wonder. We had the fantasy author Betty Finke with us, who also wanted to contribute to the raffle and personally gave the two novels, the prequel The Lanyon Stone and  Delharne’s Daughter, the first volume in the series, to the winner.

Once you have entered the land of faerie, anything is possible: The Dixit Disney Edition (2023), a splendid prize donated by Libellud,  went to the probably greatest Disney fan in the room (and to the future second greatest fan, we presume).

We travelled on, intrigued by the building site of  5 Towers (2023), constructed and brought to us by Deep Print Games.

On we went, away to the far East, directly into historic Nippon. By donating Senjutsu: The Battle for Japan to the raffle, Stone Sword Games and Lucky Duck Games made this fascinating time travel possible.

A perfectly crafted card holder by Rathskellers, seasoned with some extra goodies from their range, further motivated our travellers on the way.

This lady here was happy because she thought she had won one of Spiel’s hot new games plus a luxury two-sided neoprene game mat…

…when in truth she had also won everything else. Due to the generosity of none other than King Racoon Games, she got both hands full with splendour from the Kickstarter edition:             EOS: Island of Angels, the gorgeous game mat, EOS: Island of Angels – Deluxe Upgrade,               EOS: Island of Angels – Nation Expansion, EOS: Island of Angels – Mission Cards Expansion.

One lucky winner not only got the highly appreciated Witchcraft by King Racoon Games, but also the comic book of Tsukuyumi-Full Moon Down 1 by the multi-talented artist Felix Mertikat.

Travellers do not only find treasures to take home, they sometimes simply go shopping in beautiful countries, in this case in Croatia at InMyBox, the makers of outstanding wooden game boxes, a large choice of clever quality game accessories and even game-related wooden jewellery.                 
InMyBoy had given us two vouchers to raffle off, one of 25 Euros and another of 40 Euros. We are sure these two gentlemen will be able to find something really great to enhance their gaming experience with the games they had also just won: 

Cosmoctopus (2023) by Lucky Duck Games…

…and Age of Wonders: Planetfall (2022) by Arcane Wonders, where your travels whisk you away into space to explore alien planets.

If, however, you prefer to remain stationary on your home planet Earth, you will not regret your decision if, like this lucky earthling did, win one of InMyBox’s cleverly designed storage solutions for the game Concordia. 

When it got close to midnight, the winner could not restrain himself any further: The box was unwrapped and the ingenuity of its inside duly admired. 

A howl from the deep forest on the wayside reminded the journeying gamers of dangers often found in the wilds of strange lands: In Armata Strigoi, the vampires of south-eastern legend, are obviously very real, but, as you can learn from this image, if you show no fear, all will be well. We thank the designer and legend Paolo Vallerga from Scribabsfor graciously donating this beautiful, original and exciting game to the raffle.

When you happen to have your own spell book, or if you are so lucky to win SpellBook by Space Cowboys, it is not surprising that your luck is extended to winning a super elegant Rathskellers dice set, too, as held up here,

and it even rubs off onto the winner of Benevolent, a generous donation by Matagot, who is coyly hiding his new Rathskellers foldable dice tray that he just won as well.

And even the next winner who is cheerfully presenting his copy of Waterfall Park, a prize donated by the good people of Repos Production, has an assortment of Rathskellers goodies to be happy about.

This year, Rathskellers had us all in the bag! The creators of amazing high-end gaming tables have a new line of useful and exceptionally well-crafted gaming accessories and had given a lot of thought to the choice of items they could bring along to the raffle.

There were wonderful things to be won from their stock of elegant foldable dice trays, dice vaults, precious dice sets, card holders, with a garnish of lovely goodies from neat little pouches, wrist-bands and key-fobs on top and, oh yes, there you have it – a number of absolutely spectacular tote bags made from a fabric especially designed to protect and carry heavy objects, all with a radiantly colourful high quality limited art print that was more like a deep-dye and imbued those bags with almost a light of their own.

Winners could proudly carry their prizes and games off in style, beaming as radiantly as the print on the bag, so it was not surprising the bags were immediately very, very popular indeed. Therefore, some guests who did not win a bag considered buying one at the Rathskellers booth the next day.

Gotta2 Gottani had come all the way from Japan, but, sadly, could not make it to the Fringe event; nonetheless they sent greetings, together with a copy of their classically themed and lovely little social deduction game Who am i? Alice in a Mad Tea Party. 

Yes, these are the actual game components!

You do, of course, all know Chip Theory Games. Again, they regretted they would not be able to make it to our Fringe event, especially because they had problems getting their English language games delivered to the fair on time. Despite being woefully short of stock, they again proved how very much they appreciate you, the gamers: Chip Theory Games sent their very best regards and packed us a big bag with two very, very heavy boxes of their newest games (English copies, too!):

This is Hoplomachus: Victorum (2023), a “strategic gladiator combat and adventure featuring solo gameplay” by Chip Theory Games. (The picture had to be taken quickly, before the Victorum Premium Hero Tracker Mat was put on top of the box as well)…

…and this is Hoplomachus: Remastered (2023) itself in all its glory, a tactical game for 1 to 4 gladiators! Do all ways really lead to Rome?

Match of the Century by Capstone is a match between two chess masters and could, as such, take place anywhere.

The complete big box of Final Girl Series 2 plus a set of miniatures was a final triumph: “I so wanted this!” Lady Luck had been in a happy and benevolent mood that night: Julie Ahern from Van Ryder Games again generously gave away a highly sought after gem to a true fan.

And last but by no means least, the travelling heroes from the game Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood by Shadowbourne Games joined the track of phantastic games on their quest towards their ultimate goal: entertaining and making you all happy!

When the raffle was ending and we believed we had reached the aim of our quest 2023, Rathskellers surprised and delighted us all with a very generous expansion:                                                                             “Everybody who comes to the Rathskellers booth on Sunday and shows their ticket of the Dice & Mystics Fringe Event 2023 will receive a bag as a gift.” So, for the very first time ever, each and every Fringe attendee had a winning ticket!

As early as Sunday morning reports started rolling in about how thoroughly Rathskellers had kept their word: Really everybody with a Fringe ticket got one of the coveted bags, even those who had not been able to come in person and had, in high hopes, entrusted their ticket to somebody else for the purpose. And thus people started talking about “The Year of the Bag”.

Eventually, the 6^th  Dice & Mystics Fringe Event in the Year of the Bag ended. 

We are grateful for all those amazing and generous gifts from you, the publishers and businesses who outdid themselves to donate so very many awe-inspiring prizes, and say Thank You for bringing our guests so much joy. We especially thank Rathskellers for making everybody a winner. We thank King Racoon Games who, again, gifted our event with such a lovely variety of refreshments free for everyone.

We give a Big Round of Applause to our engaged, tireless helpers and fellow Dice & Mystics without whom the event would not even be possible, and who, footsore, tired and exhausted from keeping it all up and running, said what a truly happy day it had been for them. 

A very Big Thank You to the Community of St. Engelbert of the Parish of St. Franziskus, who for the 6^th time allowed us to use their entire building, and also to those kind ladies of the “Ecumenical Lunch”, who once again postponed their gathering to the following week without any further ado. 

And to all our precious guests: Thank you for coming! Without you, we would have sat at empty tables.

It has become a tradition that we got presents from you, too, and that at this point we think fondly of you and everybody who attended, and say: Thank you so much!

We were told by our regulars, “Old Hares” as we fondly use to call them in German, that coming to the “Fringe” was almost like coming home, like an annual family reunion. That is the point, really, isn’t it? All kinds of people from all continents, from–often very–young to old, all hair and eye colours and complexions, different beliefs and ideas, in all their differences and diversities, are united in this: They can gather, communicate and cooperate happily and peacefully like friends or family, even if they happen to have a war game on the table, teach each other rules by which they all abide, have fun and laugh and joke together and have a good time. Some other guest once said: “Here you can see for yourselves that peace and goodness are not out of reach, when we really want it.”

Hoping to see you all again in 2024. Stay safe, game on, and be kind towards each other!

Good Play, Better Day!

Your Dice & Mystics

Attending Spiel Essen and want to play?

Come to the Dice & Mystics Fringe 2023!

You would like to  conclude your day at the SPIEL with a nice and comfortable game night in good company? 

We are hosting our 6^.th Dice & Mystics Fringe event on Saturday, October 6^th, at our location in Bochum, 15 minutes by car from the SPIEL.

Like always, all you great people and fellow gamers from all over the globe are very welcome, and, as usual – our event is free of costs and totally non-commercial.

We simply want our fellow board gamers to enjoy, meet people, exchange their experiences of the fair and have fun together over their brand new games (and discharge shrink wrap and punched cardboard sheets to lighten their luggage).

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, we use an online booking service (see below), also free of costs.

There are hotels and restaurants in the vicinity that are no further away by car than 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 on:

https://doo.net/veranstaltung/133130/buchung

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.

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

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

Registration ends on: Saturday, 23.09.2023

Dear fellow gamers hear me out!

You all are sitting next to me at the fire with sane minds, unscarred bodies nor ripped-off limbs.

It is clear to my old eyes that you do not know the wrath of dragon fire.

But out there in the land of Kickstarter are brave warriors, fighting and battling mighty dragons, demons and even the god of storm.

Their leader is named Leonidas by friends and cursed by foes. His most loyal retainer Az beats the war Drummond and keeps the troops in line. I have seen the battlefields on which they fought beasts of legends, and I collected many unattended corpses.

Are you thirsty for glory – thirthty to make yourself known to the people of the land of Kickstarter?

Do you want to bring boxes full of loot with you when you return to your home again or be known as one who fought and died on the bonefields of Legend?

Then follow this path to the KS and do not hesitate!

Pledge your soul to your god.

Offer your live to godfather death.

I will take care of your unattended corpse.

Come and follow me and let me tell you that the warriors of Mythic Games will gather at the Dice & Mystics Fringe Event with us. And they bring loot for our raffle: One copy of Time of Legends: Joan of Arc and one canvas print showing glorious art from the game!

Give them the proper support on KS and have big fun playing their games!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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: