Dice & Mystics Double Feature March 2023

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 overnight. In addition, we have prepared three tables hosting: 

Twilight Imperium 3rd edition
Frostpunk
Bardsung

The event starts Saturday the 18th of March 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 19th of March, 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 attendance here.

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

The Dice & Mystics Fringe 2022 – A Celebration of Gaming

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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 5th 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 …

Prizes rolling in

… 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.

The raffle begins

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.

All good…
…things come…
… in threes.

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?

Yummy popcorn anyone-?

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

Clever Kleever

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

Cactus standee edition
ANother Cactus standee edition
Cactus miniature edition plus expansion for the standee edition.

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

Afluentes (Tributary Rivers)

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

Double Holidays…
… and double joy.

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.

Captivated by Captive
Dark Mage and Sherlock Holmes – Four Investigations
A capable Hostage Negotiator
The grand Tournament, Space Brigade, and Sherlock Holmes – 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.

A stylish dice tray and a voucher
The dice tray in a different attractive colour and another voucher
The “Spiel Attendee 2022” foldable dice tower

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.

Fun with a really great game…
… and cuddly critters…
… and lots of goodies to go with it all.

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

Ruinmasters Bestiary

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

A magical prize

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

Facts are fun

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

Ready to join the Carnival

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

Vienna under Siege

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.

The Final Girl in fearless hands

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

Ready for a journey on Hidden Trails

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.

Travellers on the Elven Road

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!

Prospector found 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 …

All given away with a smile

… 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-!

A whole tower of exciting gaming time

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…”

“What did I win -?”

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!

Delicacies from all over the globe

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

Dice & Mystics Fringe Event 2020 cancelled

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Dear friends and fellow gamers,
you will have waited for news from the Dice & Mystics concerning the Fringe event 2020, and we had promised to find out what things may or may not be possible and to keep you updated.
Sadly, we are forced to stand up to this promise by announcing that there will be no Dice & Mystics Fringe this year.
Spiel Essen 2020 has – understandably under the circumstances – been cancelled, or as they preferred to put it in kinder and easier to digest terms: “postponed“ until October 2021.
As the name of our event clearly states, we are usually offering a place to come and play at the „fringe“ of the huge board game fair, Spiel Essen. We usually invite the many guests of the Spiel, exhibitioners, bloggers and vloggers and every other enthusiast to wind down after a bustling and exciting day, share the joys of gaming and often meet friends from previous years. But we now have to face a dire truth: No Spiel Essen, no Fringe event.
Even if we tried to whisk up something independently, we would still not have a location for it to take place in, no catering, and with all the necessary safety rules still in place, it would be a caricature of the happy meeting we were all hoping for.
These are tough times for gamers. If there is anything board games are not, that’s socially distanced, and we are happy and rightfully proud of the fact, too. We are heartbroken that a tiny little thing that is not even properly alive like a virus can force a longer wait upon us before we can all sit down togetherand happily game again. We missed you all since last October, and now we are missing you even more!
We hope you are all well and we are going to meet in 2021!
Take care, stay healthy – and keep on gaming to prepare for happier times to come!

RiotMinds announces Trudvang Adventures, tabletop RPG for 5E

Fellow adventurers:

Please indulge me for a brief while when I tell you about my findings quite wondrous to behold. Yesternight I ventured deep into the woods longing to see the lights of the silver town again. Alas my searching gaze revealed only a deep pond, staring lidles up to the round pale eye in the sky. As soon as my soot black friend named shadow floated out into the silver to play with the waves a voice reckoned my humble me and spoke in the most finest words of wonders that are waiting for us in the near future. And here is what it spoke:

Swedish games publisher RiotMinds today announced the upcoming release of Trudvang Adventures, a full adaptation of the critically acclaimed award-winning RPG setting, for 5E. The game is based on the successful “Trudvang Chronicles” campaign world setting that was voted “The most anticipated game of the year” by the ENWorld community upon its release.

Trudvang Adventures 5E (TA5E) is anchored in a unique world setting of fused Celtic and Nordic myths and sagas. TA5E players are afforded the opportunity to explore the incredibly rich and visually stunning fantasy setting of Trudvang Chronicles while still remaining familiar and accessible for players of 5E. Both players and DMs will feel instantly at home and comfortable with the TA5E toolsets for their epic campaigns.

Trudvang Chronicles is licensed and translated for use in a number of countries and is also the basis for the new board game Trudvang Legends. The Trudvang Legends board game is scheduled for release later this year and is produced and published by renowned game design company CMON.

Trudvang Adventures will be launched as a Kickstarter campaign May 23rd 2020.

For more information about Trudvang Adventures 5E please visit: https://riotminds.se/TA5E/

For more information about Trudvang Chronicles please visit: https://riotminds.se/trudvang/

For more information about Trudvang Legends board game please visit:

https://cmon.com/product/trudvang-legends/trudvang-legends

Dice & Mystics Fringe 2019 Booked Full

Hey everybody – I have news concerning the Dice & Mystics Fringe:

We are booked full.

We could not believe our eyes, but it’s true, and it’s only July…!

To everybody who successfully used our new booking system: We hope it was as convenient and easy for you as we intended it to be, and we thank you so much for joining our 2019 event.

For anybody who would still like to come but did not catch a ticket:

With the online booking system there is no waiting list. However, as soon as anybody has to cancel, we will manually remove their reservation and booking will re-open for those places, so keep your eyes peeled for any free spot that may pop up again. If there are any problems, you can reach out to us at: contact(at)diceandmystics.de

To anybody who has a ticket but cannot come:

Please do send an e-mail with your cancellation to contact(at)diceandmystics.de ! Please include your booking number.

There will be other people who would gladly like to take your spot, and for them to be able to do so we have to manually cancel the ticket so that there will be a free spot indicated in the booking system. For that, we must of course first know that there is a vacancy! Thank you very much in advance.

All that remains to say is: We are very much looking forward to meet you all in person in just over three months. Till then, have a wonderful time, lots of fun gaming, and a safe journey to Spiel Essen and our Dice & Mystics Fringe event in Bochum.

Good play – better day!

A Sentinel’s View of The Tainted Grail

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.